"This time it's different"

Happy Caturday

Pedestrian Refuges - Global Designing Cities Initiative

Pedestrian refuges can also help reduce vehicle crashes by preventing drivers from passing stopped traffic in unsafe conditions.

globaldesigningcities.org/publication/...

WotD: pedestrian refuge. A protected island in the middle of a street or road where people can safely stop while crossing. On a road with pedestrian refuges, a person crossing has to worry only traffic from one direction at a time.

Part 2!

Happy Caturday, today featuring cats I met in my recent travels

wait, "ceapmann" is an early borrowing?

Sort of relatedly, have you ever written about words "ultimately of Germanic origin" that were borrowed into Latin?

wait, how old is DLR? By "electrifying" do they mean they're going to reanimate him?

we were excited to show this to the (nearly grown) kids, but it just didn't land with them the way it had with us

The SKI Trend That’s Reshaping Travel The new travel trend is reshaping how affluent travelers are spending their money on luxury travel.

WotD: SKI travel, which stands for "spending kids['] inheritance". Refers to affluent elders who are "choosing to spend on bucket-list trips and one-in-a-lifetime experiences rather than saving wealth for the next generation".

www.travelpulse.com/news/feature...

Happy Caturday

Less stuff, more joy: seven lessons from ‘enoughfluencers’ on how to live a happier, simpler life Meet the influencers encouraging us to stop buying new

WotD: "enough[-]fluencer", someone who's "about celebrating already having enough, and, crucially, feeling happier for it". Related to "deinfluencer". (See linked article)

Fun to see -fluencer achieve libfix status.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Happy Caturday

I'm convinced that some conferences start at 7:00 AM so that there's time to get in a round of golf before cocktail hour

Indeed, influencer-ese is a game of conjuring new terms for known ideas. Now pardon me while I go and prepare my roasted tree-cherry caffeine infusion, haha

Hate Drinking Water? Then “Stacked” Water May Be for You Can water become muscle-building, ultrahydrating, and filled with vitamins?

WotD: stacked water, "a combination of different functional ingredients and juices added to water to enhance the hydration experience"

Source:

www.vogue.com/article/what...

Happy Caturday

Does that mean that people don't say "foo'ball"?

I somehow think John Kennedy's pronunciation during the Congressional hearing wasn't ironic or even an aesthetic choice

Well, dang, I had not heard. I don't know where exactly you are, but here in Lake City we just got a Jaded Bagels, and in Roosevelt afaik there's still Bagel Oasis. But Blazing was good, this makes me very sad.

wait, which place went under?

Not directly relevant to your thought, but has the "blueski" pronunciation gone viral?

Happy Caturday

Would you consider this related to the social-media comment "this" (entirety of comment) to indicate agreement with a previously posted thought?

Opinion | Why I’m Suing Grammarly

WotD: Sloppelgänger, "A.I. slop masquerading as a person". A fun construction that combines "slop" ("low-quality AI-generated content") with a pun on "Doppelgänger" ("double of a living person"). From a NYT article by @juliaangwin.com:

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/o...

I am currently taking a class (virtually) from an institution in London, and was surprised this week when I went on Zoom and discovered that the class was starting an hour later than my calendar thought. Thus a little lesson in PDT vs GMT. (Tho better an hour early than an hour late ...)

Snowbank pliers

Happy Caturday

it's important for brave pioneers to be testing the outer limits of bacon, thank you for your service

tho I supposed it could be some sort of lexical diffusion